February 04, 2013

The Possible California Oil Boom

Comprising two-thirds of the United States’s total estimated shale oil
reserves and covering 1,750 square miles from Southern to Central
California, the Monterey Shale could turn California into the nation’s
top oil-producing state and yield the kind of riches that far smaller
shale oil deposits have showered on North Dakota and Texas.

For decades, oilmen have been unable to extricate the Monterey Shale’s
crude because of its complex geological formation, which makes
extraction quite expensive. But as the oil industry’s technological
advances succeed in unlocking oil from increasingly difficult locations,
there is heady talk that California could be in store for a new oil
boom.

A casual reader might infer that the new developments include the fracking and horiziontal drilling techniques that have revolutionized oil production in North Dakota and Texas. However, CNN explains that the problem is more complicated than simply moving established technology westward:

As a result of the San Andres fault,
California's geologic layers are folded like an accordion rather than
simply stacked on top of each other like they are in other Shale states.
The folds have naturally cracked the shale rock, and much of
California's current "conventional" oil production -- the third largest
in the nation -- is thought to come from the Monterey.

But the folds mean recent advancements that have
made shale oil and gas profitable to extract -- horizontal drilling
combined with hydraulic fracturing -- don't work as well in California. It's hard to drill horizontally if the shale is not flat.

Plus, it appears the Monterey is made up of
shale rock that doesn't respond as well to hydraulic fracturing -- the
controversial practice known as fracking
that involves injecting water, sand and chemicals into the ground under
high pressure to crack the rock and allow the oil and gas to flow.

OK. The Times also present the environmental issue as a simple scuffle of Greens versus Frackers. Here is a Geoffrey Styles, energy consultant delivering some nuance:

However it is eventually unlocked, the Monterey shale offers significant
benefits to California. Start with the fact that the state's oil
production has been in steady decline
since the mid-1980s. Together with the depletion of Alaska's North
Slope field, that has meant that the US West Coast, which was once a net
exporter of oil, now imports increasing quantities of oil--half of it from OPEC--to meet local demand. That trend has continued even as the import dependence of the rest of the country has fallen substantially
due to higher production and receding demand. The Monterey could slash
California's imports, while adding billions of dollars a year to the
local economy and to the shaky state budget, along with lots of good
jobs.

It could even provide environmental benefits. Restoring oil
self-sufficiency would reduce the risk of spills from the tankers
bringing in imports, while refilling existing infrastructure. And if
the Monterey yields oil similar in quality to the light, sweet crude now
being produced from the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales, it could actually
cut both greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution by reducing
the refining intensity required to turn the state's current diet of
heavier crudes into ultra-low sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel.

However, Mr. Styles' heart is not yet racing:

I suspect from my research in the last few weeks that anyone betting on
an imminent explosion of oil output from the Monterey shale is likely to
be disappointed. The process seems likely to be slower than elsewhere,
though with a bigger potential payoff. But that doesn't make it
irrelevant to a state that has set its sights on being at the forefront
of the transformation to cleaner energy sources. California still
consumes 1.8 million barrels per day
of petroleum products, and it will burn many more billions of barrels
on its way to its chosen future of electric vehicles running on wind and
solar power, and trucks and buses burning compressed or liquefied
natural gas. Developing the Monterey shale won't solve all of
California's energy challenges and might create a few new ones, yet it
could prove another timely contribution from a local oil industry that
has been a major driver of the state's economy for well over a century.

Comments

Is anyone able to name a single Obama/Van Jones type energy initiative that has contributed to the development of the current oil and gas boom in the US?. . . .

I didn't think so. I guess we once again may flourish due to the fact that we still have those with entrepreneurial spirit, and the fact that God takes care of drunks, orphans and the United States of America.

It doesn't matter how much oil is there or how much tax revenue it might produce, California's liberal government will never allow it to come out of the ground so it's understandable that one's heart isn't racing...

As long as the Dems are in power in California, it will stay in the ground. This is the state that is starving the Central Valley (once known as the breadbasket of the world, now known as a dust bowl) of water to save a two-inch smelt.

If you've been paying attention, you'd note that Obama is fine with US resources being harvested by foreign nationals. In fact, I'll wager that Mexico wants to take over California, to lay claim to that shale, and Obama will allow that to happen. US citizens are being forced out of California, just as US oil and gas companies have been forced out of the Gulf of Mexico, out of coal mining, out of uranium mining, through onerous regulations and fines. Obama has allowed coal companies from India, to buy up US coal mines and has exempted them from all regulations and fines, Obama has allowed foreign oil and gas companies to drill for oil and gas in the US and it's waters, free of regulations and all fines, Obama has allowed Russian and Chinese companies to mine uranium in Texas, and either Montana or Wyoming. Obama wants to give or sell off all US resources into foreign hands. Are you going to pick up on that fact, or do you, along with the neo-cons want to look at that as somehow acceptable?

So, Obama wants more revenue. Then why not kill two birds with one stone: Sell off more public lands, like they did in 1998 with the sale of the Naval Petroleum Reserves at Elk Hill to Occidental? That raised $3.65 billion - the largest public to private transaction ever. Public lands with lots of exploration and production potential especially those icky oil shale deposits in California.

But noooooo. We need to tap the treasure trove of the Cayman's secret accounts and Hedge Fund assets known as carried interest. Just think about it, the American family will wake up in 2016 to a $20,000 medical insurance premium, Professional Flag Football, a ban on Nerf guns, the return of chicken-poop fueled cars and a new Mexican state of Viejo Callifornia.

I just woke up, turned on the company website, and the first thing that popped up was a new "Mandate From The FAA". Here it is:

Other Commercial Flying

The FAA has determined that under FAR 121 Domestic Flag regulations real time tracking of Flight and Duty time is required to allow our pilots to participate in Other Commercial Flying. At present, no methodology is in place at (My Company) for real time tracking of outside Flight Time and Duty Time, so the FAA has mandated that Other Commercial Flying may no longer be authorized at (my Company).

If you are conducting Other Commercial Flying with a waiver from the VP of Flight Operations or his designee, as described below, as of April 1, 2013, that waiver letter is rescinded.

I don't engage in Other Commercial Flying though some of my co-workers obviously do; (ie) Alaska Flight Tour Guides; Alaska Flight Fishing Pachages; Alaska Hunting Packages; Alaska Iditarod Support Flights, etc (all designed to take tourists out to locations in the bush for hunting or fishing or the Iditarod or Glacial tours etc.) Perhaps there are legitimate reasons for this new Government "Mandate", but I can't find a word anywhere via google about this new FAA "Mandate", and I am generally skeptical of Government Mandates.

Wouldn't it be nice one day to wake up and find out that the Government is suddenly less restrictive than the day before, rather than more restrictive.

I know I am contradicting some of my friends here, but I thought the GoDaddy kissing ad was totally fine. It had two people both clearly over 21 and within a reasonable age of each other kissing and had a touch of humor (beauty kisses the geek beast). American as apple pie. No heroin chic models, no models who looked under 21 in various states of undress, and nobody crossdressing while eating chips. I say hooray for the lady beauty model and the gent geek model for a wholesome display of what lip synching should be all about!

Here's a video of an empty suit-- OK a really dumb empty suit-- Sen. Chris Murphy watching a .223 live fire demonstration at the Ct State Police firing range. Interestingly, the range is about 1 mile from where my daughter lived/attended fancy pants HS for 4 years, so when the wind was right she could hear the State troopers blasting away. my tiny little daughter told me she always wanted to get a 9mm and blast away at targets at the range -- she never did get the opportunity while she was up there. so for your viewing pleasure here's Sen Murphy tsk tsking "the fire arms industry" about 10 miles from where Colt Fire Arms developed the M-16, the pappy of the AR-15 semi-automatic: http://darien.patch.com/articles/murphy-speed-capacity-of-semi-automatic-weapons-unbelievable-video-d2109603#video-13208361

Imagine if The Post broke a story about the biggest scandal of the Obama-era — and Washington responded with a collective yawn?

That’s precisely what happened recently when The Post reported on its front page that senior Obama administration officials were being investigated by the FBI and Justice Department for the leak last summer that the president had personally ordered cyberattacks on the Iranian nuclear program using a computer virus developed with Israel called Stuxnet.

The Post quotes a source who says that FBI agents and prosecutors are pursuing “everybody — at pretty high levels.” The paper further reports that investigators “have conducted extensive analysis of the e-mail accounts and phone records of current and former government officials” and that some have been confronted “with evidence of contact with journalists.”

This is big. And former senior government lawyers I spoke with recently explained why it could get a whole lot bigger: [...]

Ironically, considering the death of Chris Kyle, I have been reading the new Bob Lee Swagger "The Third Bullet" which revolves around the JFK assaination.

Lets put it this way, a long-distance sniper like Kyle, had to have been a math savant in order to do the calculations needed for a direct accurate hit. Either that or Apple had an app for that. The technical aspects of firing a .50 caliber sniping weapon from a mile away and hitting your target as intended is mind boggling.

I would never diss a geek, beast or otherwise, Beasts of England. Diss a geek, and he or she may hack into your computer or smartphone and publish all that info better kept between one and one's device! :-))

Yes, California got squeezed like a ham and cheese sandwich in a giant's fist by the Pacific plate, that's where the Sierra Nevada came from. Also the gold, melted by the heat and squeezed into pockets of profitability.

Speaking of Califoria, I just came home from a weekend at the Loews Hotel in Santa Monica. Mrs. lyle and I checked in Thur. afternoon and by evening it was obvious there was a pretty big convention going on. Okay, hotel with a convention. No big whoop. Riding the elevator with a middle aged white woman--I'll get to the reason for noting her pallor in a sec--I inquire what the acronym on her name tag stood for: DAGA.

Anyway, by Friday they where in full swing. (Rode another elevator with Chris Dodd, BTW.) By Sat. night there were maybe a hundred of them in the lobby and around the bar. Overwhelmingly white. OVERWHELMINGLY. Counted three black people and possibly some white Hispanics.

So bear this in mind when you hear another Dem hack call out the other party for lack of diversity...or you could just look at the US Senate or JEF's cabinet, I guess.

We have total imbeciles running this state.Unfortunately, I don't see an oil boom..(or any other kind of boom for that matter) in California's future. We will get a partially built bullet train to nowhere however! :/

I think there is a math error on the last page of JiB's link regarding the effect of dusk on the width of the pupil and how to calculate that into shots > 1000 yards (or was it meters?) JiB, as the resident engineer, please double check the math so I can get it right the first time.

I don't think that the "wordsmith" class is inherently evil or unworthy. What I believe is that they have, due to their position, the power to comment upon everything, and in every dispute they will have the last word. It's their job to have the last word.

This means that the wordsmith professions are barely every critiqued by those outside the professions. Capitalists, of course, suffer the critiques of the wordsmiths every day, but rare is the day that the capitalists lodge their own critique of the wordsmiths. (Capitalism can punish the wordsmiths, of course, as it's doing now; but it's rare that there's an outsider critique. Most people who critique are, in fact, part of the wordsmith class to one extent or the other. Wordsmiths tend to understand only words, not numbers; and so while they continue to shed workers, lose subscribers, and lose money, it doesn't quite register with them unless the rebuke is expressed in words. Their minds are quite cramped and limited in that sad way.)

So, basically, we have an entire series of psychologically-related industries that never has bullshit called on them.

My maternal grandmother lived in Sacramento.When I was in elementary school,she would send me packets of brochures all about the "Golden State." Living in NH,it all sounded so exotic.I also had the best school project,with all my info about California. I always had a special place in my mind as a child about California and to know that it is now a dysfunctional place is sad.

OT, and I've been away from the computer all day, but did anyone compliment TC on his superbowl prediction?

My prediction: Flacco throws a 17 yard TD pass to Torrey Smith with 23 seconds left in the game to lift the Ravens over the 49ers 31-27. Flacco takes game MVP honors, with Torrey Smith and Ray Lewis also receiving votes.

Ok, the first part wasn't right, and the score was 34-31, not 31-27, but on the whole, pretty good. What are your stock market picks, TC?

Thank you, jimmyk and narciso. I thought that John Harbaugh's and Joe Flacco's extensive playoff experience would give the Ravens a slight edge. By the way, I do not think the lights out delay made the difference. San Francisco also came back against the Packers and Falcons. These were two evenly matched teams.

As for stock picking, one is better off playing the slots at Foxwoods than having me as one's stock picker!

Well it did follow most of the last few playoff games, had there not been that last failed completion, the Niners might have won it, a lopsided game, which the first two quarters were, is not a challenge.

Cool BR! Would make the walk-around pre-flight inspection a tad more full of excitement than normal.

OT:

Here's an interesting update on the Russian "Old Believer's" of Alaska being asked to sign up for a 3 year long Reality TV Show. Only 12 people showed up, and some of them were not Old Believer's, so the Nat Geographic Show Promoters asked those folks to leave. Then they said it would not be like "Jersey Shore", but surprise, one of the producers produced "jersey Shore". Then we find out that the Nat Geo series on the Hutterites made the Hutterites mad by presenting a false impression and the Nat Geo folks won't respond to the Hutterites. National Geographic gets cold reception from Old Believers

While I was gone on my last trip, the legally elected new Republican Party Chair for the State, Russ Millette, was booted out of the party by the old Repub Network. His Chairmanship will supposedly now go to the newly elected Vice Chair, but I believe Court challenges will follow, and on Talk Radio today the Tea Party/Libertarians/Paulians are furious at the Old Boy Network for ignoring the Laws and acting like Democrats in ousting Millette.

Narciso will recognize all the players, especially outgoing Repub Party Chair Randy Ruederich, who apparently orchestrated the coup because his hand picked successor lost the election to Millette, who was supported by Ron Paulians at the Party Election. For example:

A plan was put forward to hold a hearing on the charges at the installation meeting of the Executive Committee on February 1st. Then, to the surprise of party members who described the action as "a sham" and "a witch hunt," the hearing was moved forward a day so that the new committee members would not yet be seated or have a vote on the accusations.

Even more troubling to many party members was the notification right before the meeting that outgoing Chairman Randy Ruederich had cleaned out the party treasury of $35,000 and transferred the money to a bank in Juneau out of control of the Executive Committee, a classic "rule or ruin" tactic designed to make sure that if the new leadership takes over they will have no money to fund party operations.

I know nothing of Millette except that he won the Party Chairmanship Election fair and square, and I heard him on talk radio a few times and he seemed lucid enough for me to avoid Republicide, but it is now all a mess and a civil war, and the Dems and Mark Begich are dancing in glee at the division.

BR, a buddy of mine (ex-Boeing aero engineer) has an early slot position on a Seawind. I've not waded thru the specs, but it has been passing its flight tests without any glitches, so I'd say take a closer look.

The only caviat learned across a century of aircraft startup companies is that they usually prove to be too good to be true. Many had the knack of getting to the production stage about the time the economy tanked in the next cycle.

Some see this as a good thing, hope of conquering death by living again.

Others see this as a burdensome wheel of life to be escaped.

New understanding - there can be a continuous flowing without the interruption, disruption, memory loss, cutting of communication with loved ones by body death. The spirit can transform its biological form, can change its solidity into something lighter without dying. Can still enjoy all the pleasant sensations and be beautiful. Can levitate, can experience an intensity of well-being, spaciousness, weightlessness, pleasure.

"A Latin American Ambassador, who would not have passed a DUI checkpoint sobriety test, loudly and throughout the evening harangued and berated the Spanish Ambassador demanding to know, "When are you going to return the gold you stole from the Americas?" The Spaniard, exasperated, finally lost his professional diplomatic cool and replied, "¡Cuando ustedes nos devuelvan los espejitos! " ("When you return the little mirrors!") A pretty neat and witty put down, and a potent reminder of the danger of taking shiny things in exchange for your birthright: once it's gone, it's most likely gone forever."

That is the Esau Principle, as you well know Janet, on the earlier point, the Company (not to mention the State Department) obliviousness is legendary, many of their top men, in Havana, favored Fidel over Batista, well just because, circumstances caused them to change
that perspective, but by then it was too late.

In the Middle East, Farouk was considered dispensable, and Nasser, the up and comer, do
Copeland and Eichelberger, backed him, years later, having been proven wrong, they duplicated the same thing, against Quassim in Iraq,

Mark Levin is required listening for blowing a huge hole in what Rove and his dickweed partner in this new scam organization are trying to do. Candidates that Rove's group backed for the Senate lost 10 out of 12 races and 4 out of 10 House candidates backed by American Crossroads lost. No wonder he has to put together a sales pitch to the swells (and promulgated to the masses by the NYT) that shifts the narrative away from past results.

Levin also slatters the stat that Gabby Gifford's deadbeat husband, who trots her around to events like an organ grinder's monkey, said that 1.7 million people were prevented from buying guns by background checks. The answer is that many of these people subsequently were able to buy them so the number really means nothing in terms of ultimate effectiveness. Shocking that Chris Wallace didn't know this although it was truly a surprise that LaPierre didn't subsequently correct it.

RE: Madeleine Albright, "disgusting Serbs", Clinton, the MFM, and the US role in Bosnia/Kosovo

At the time, I accepted their premise that Milosovic, the Serbs, and people like Karadzic and Mladic were the primary villains in the horrors of the Balkans during the breakup of Yugoslavia.

But now I doubt this.

With what we now know about the radicalization of the Muslims, especially those influenced by the jihadists of Al Qaeda, and their propensity for committing atrocities and destruction, and the liberals' support for Islam over almost all Christians, I can almost believe that perhaps, just perhaps, the Serbs were really on the forefront of our current war with Islam, and were reacting understandably to atrocities that were first being conducted against them by Muslims in the Balkans.

Quite frankly, I wouldn't put it past Clinton, Albright, Christopher, and others in the Clinton administration, along with their anti-Christian and anti-Western allies in the MFM, to portray the Serbs as the primary war criminals while painting the Muslims as the poor, down-trodden victims who needed US and European help.